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On the fifteenth of July, people began showing up at Water’s Edge, uninvited Each person came with a specific task to do The 4-H chapter cleaned out the horses’ stalls; the Future Farmers of America helped Henry feed the steers; the Women’s Equestrian Drill Teaone out last week: Noah was co home at last And the town rallied to help out Vivi Ann

She was stunned by her neighbors’ help and grateful for their prayers In the last six weeks, she and Dallas had been living separate lives,sure that one of theh she hadn’t told people how difficult it had been, obviously they knew

“It’s ti up beside her

“Are you ready?” Winona asked, following close behind

Vivi Ann hugged theht now she was actually afraid she would start crying “Thank everyone for today, will you?”

“Of course,” Aurora said

Just then Dallas’s priray Ford truck cah the parking area toward them It was an old, rounded ine worked perfectly He pulled up in front of them and parked

Vivi Ann thanked her sisters again and opened the truck’s heavy door It screeched and rattled, then slammed shut behind her On the ripped leather bench seat, the robin’s-egg-blue car seat looked bizarrely out of place

“You ready, Mrs Raintree?” Dallas said, giving her the first true smile she’d seen in more than a month

“I’m ready”

For the next two hours, as they drove down the twisting, tree-lined highway behind a steady streas—the new school horse that was giving the kids proble joints, what to award for prizes at the next barrel race—but when they finally arrived at the hospital, Vivi Ann reached over the car seat and held his hand, unable to think of anything to say

“Me, too,” he said, and together they walked through the parking lot and into the bright white lobby of Pierce County’s biggest hospital

In the past weeks they’d become like family within these walls, and they stopped and talked to plenty of nurses, volunteers, and orderlies along the way to the pediatric wing

There, Noah aiting for the a teacup-sized cap over his shock of wild black hair

Vivi Ann took him in her arms “Hey, little man You ready to come home?”